Head Softball Coach Dawn Stearns Becomes UB All-Time Wins Leader With Purple Knights' Split Versus Pace

Bridgeport, Conn.-The University of Bridgeport softball team split a non-conference doubleheader at home against the Pace University Setters in Seaside Park on Thursday afternoon, as the Purple Knights won game one 10-2 in five innings, and the Setters took the nightcap in a crazy game, 12-11 in nine innings.  With the split, UB is now 24-19 overall, and Pace moves to 22-18.

With the Bridgeport triumph in the opener, UB head coach Dawn Stearns moved in first place on the Purple Knights all-time wins list for softball by earning her 267 victory which surpasses Phil LeBrock's total of 266.  LeBrock coached the Purple Knights from 1984-1996.

In game one, the Purple Knights trailed 2-0 after the top of the first, but senior Taylor Yates (Elk Grove, Calif.) crushed a three-run home run, her fifth of the season, in the bottom of the first to give her team a 3-2 lead which they never relinquished.

Freshman Mya Jones (Milford, Del.) stayed red-hot at the plate on Thursday as she went 4-for-4 in the opener with four runs batted in and then followed that up by going 2-for-4 with three RBI in game two.

Sophomore Madison D'Amato (Warwick, R.I.) reached base all 10 times she came to the plate in the two games going 3-for-3 with a walk in the opener and a perfect 4-for-4 with two walks and three runs batted in the nightcap.  D'Amato also scored a total of seven runs in the doubleheader.

In game two, senior Samantha Schiebe (Monroe, Conn.) went 3-for-6 with two runs batted in.

Game two was a wild affair with the Purple Knights tying the game in the bottom of the seventh at 8-8 on a two-RBI double by Mya Jones; tying the game at 9-9 in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI-single by sophomore Alex Hughes (Joliet, Ill.) and then falling just short in the bottom of ninth after the Setter scored three time to open the frame on RBIs from D'Amato and Schiebe.

Freshman Vise Zarate earned the decision in both games of the doubleheader to make her season record 16-7.

The UB softball team will be right back on the diamond at home on Friday, as the Purple Knights host another non-conference doubleheader, as local rival the University of New Haven comes to Seaside Park for a date that begins at 2:00 p.m.

PHOTO BY CLARUS MULTIMEDIA